We've been duped or the Shield platform is a joke, and our bias toward Nvidia isn't allowing us to see it.

In just three days of ownership it's been a long time since I've been this disappointed in a device. Seriously, the last time I was duped this badly was maybe the Cybiko or running WiFi on a Palm OS device. Shield's out-of-box experience--that is, going from unboxing to playtime--has been a joke of expectations demands upon the casual end-user. My experience feels familiar to the DIY hacky experimentation of pure novelty reserved for XDA forums or a hardware development lab itself. This is not a finished product. It does not do anything well, and requires the suspension of critical thinking to enjoy its novel purpose. The hardware and software, both independently and in tandem, have been hobbled together without any sense of harmony and cohesion.

I'm no developer, but I now own an Nvidia Android devkit. Out of the box, the half-baked Shield simply isn't ready for its mission statement unless you're open to both a raw and unforgiving pre-first-gen experience and an oppressively strict set of accessory and peripheral requirements the Shield demands for satisfactory performance. Nvidia provides the mirage that one needs just a GeForce GTX and their tablet, only hinting at the damn-near necessity of specifically-approved home networking hardware, a $40 stand/cover to prop the tablet, a special Nvidia controller whose hardware isn't even wholly supported by their own software, and more--just to experience what any decent company would provide straight out of the box.

Nvidia's big claim with the Shield platform is wireless game streaming yet, in order to get a satisfactory streaming experience, one has to purchase a USB OTG adapter, ethernet adapter, and, unless you're totally fixated on dropping another ~$50 on the exclusive (and mediocre, non-vibrating Shield Controller) you'll have to get some sort of USB hub to plug in an Xbox or Dualshock controller. Even if one decides to plug their controller directly into the PC, haptic feedback/vibration is still lost just by virtue of running video streaming to the tablet. The resulting scheme is one of several unfortunate and wholly-immobile cables strewn about protruding from the tablet, all while sacrificing the ability to charge the damn thing in the hopes for more than a couple hours of gameplay. One one hand, nearly all mobility is lost by the squid of cables needed to stream PC games, yet mobility becomes obligatory the second one realizes it isn't really possible to both power the device while running an ethernet adapter, keyboard, mouse, controller, and more. The end result leaves two ways of viewing the Shield experience: a once-mobile device hampered by cumbersome cables, or a stationary game console equipped with a constant source of anxiety reminding the gamer that they're running on the borrowed time of a discharging battery.

Even with my dual-band 5ghz wireless network and Hub's settings set to force 1080p@60fps, Shield insists on running at 720p@30fps. I've sat three feet from the router, and I've sa thirty. Performance is garbage. I've got an ethernet adapter on the way, but I'm skeptical this amount of inflexibility will make the endeavor worthwhile.

We can pretend like the Shield's needless demands of specific routers, controllers, USB-OTG peripherals for improved experiences are normal, that there is something about this technology that warrants such demanding hardware circumstances. Yet plenty of developers have created streaming software which runs across any Android platform and doesn't even require Nvidia-specific hardware, and does so with more features and improved performance upon Nvidia's mess of a platform.

So I'm pretty upset. The more time and money I find myself piecemeal contributing to this DIY novelty experience, the more I find myself wondering how the shit such an unfinished, yet alone unpolished device of unapologetic compromise managed to make it to retail. So, here are some basic questions I can't find a fucking half-decent answer to:

1. Why does the tablet have a 16:10 display when all manner of popular media (movies and games) and Nvidia's own streaming platform use 16:9? Must every experience be inexplicably letterboxed? What the fuck was the rationale here?
2. Why is battery life so abysmal, even at idle?
3. How can Nvidia justify the finicky nature of their PC streaming platform as being ready for the average dipshit consumer?

Submitted by helloelan Xbox 720 Release Date 2015